Religious instruction
scrapped from curriculum (The Age,
Melbourne) Aug 21 - Victorian schools will scrap special religious instruction from class
time, with changes to the state's curriculum throwing the future of the
controversial program in doubt.

Catholic
Church

Pope Francis 'tricked'
into calling for Falklands talks (The
Guardian, Australia) Aug 21 - Pope Francis has found himself caught up in the dispute over the
Falkland Islands after he was photographed in the Vatican holding a sign
calling for Argentinian-British talks on the issue.

Bangkok bombing:
Investigation turns to Uighurs(Sydney Morning Herald) Aug 19 - Bangkok: A revenge attack for the deportation of Uighur Muslims from
Thailand to China has emerged as a key focus of investigations into Monday's
bombing in the Thai capital.

Islamic State ‘has lost
over 7,000 fighters’ (The
Australian) Aug 19 - RAAF jets have pursued a senior commander from the Islamic State
terror group in Iraq and killed him and about 15 of his men with a laser-guided
flying bomb, the Australian Defence Force has revealed in a briefing.

Islamic State is
systematically destroying heritage sites, says UNESCO chief(Sydney Morning Herald) Aug 22 - Amman, Jordan: Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq are engaged
in the "most brutal, systematic" destruction of ancient sites since
World War II, the head of the UN cultural agency said on Friday – a stark
warning that came hours after militants demolished a 1500-year-old monastery in
central Syria.

Q&A recap: gay
marriage sequel dominated by patronising guests(Sydney Morning Herald) Aug 18 - On Monday night Q&A accidentally did Australia a favour: if you
were wondering what the next one, two, maybe three years of debate over
same-sex marriage might be like ahead of Tony Abbott's proposed public vote,
here was your answer.

Lunch with Dave Andrews:
Jihad for Jesus (The Age,
Melbourne) Aug 21 - Dave Andrews has set himself a formidable task: to build understanding
and trust between Muslims and Christians when anti-Islamist sentiment is
running high.